jeezbee

With the release out this week in the US and next in the UK, we see more and more new reviews. You can find earlier reviews from last year’s TIFF here (professional reviews including Hollywoodreporter, Variety & Screen Daily reviews) and here (more private blogs etc), and SXSW’s are here.

• New Yorker
• Huffington Post
• Backstage
• Orlando Sentinel
• New York Observer
• New York Times
• Entertainment Weekly
• Rolling Stone
• CinemaBlend
• ReelViews
• indiWIRE
• The Star-Ledger
• The Christian Science Monitor
• Slant Magazine
• Empire Magazine
• ComingSoon.net
• Filmcritic.com
• Associated Press
• Village Voice
• USA Today
• LA Times
• Rope of Silicon
• A.V. Club
• Salon.com
• TIME Magazine
• New York Post
• Wall Street Journal
• AICN
• NPR
• California Literary Review
• Film School Rejects
• FilmShaft
• BuzzSugar
• UGO Movie Blog
• Digital Spy
• New York Daily News
• The L Magazine
• Hollywood Elsewhere
• Film Freak Central
• Santa Monica Daily Press
• Time Out New York
• Boxoffice.com
• Movie City News
• The Epoch Times
• Technorati
• Reel Talk
• Indie Movies Online
• Last Broadcast
• Canada.com
• News Of The World (UK)
• Mirror (UK)
• California Chronicle
• Monsters & Critics
• Scotsman.com
• Puremovies.co.uk
• Screengeek
• Time Out London
• OK!
• Christianity Today
• CompuServe
• It’s Just Movies
• The Skinny
• Front Row Reviews
• the moviegoer
• Spirituality & Practice
• UniversityObserver.ie
• Shadows On The Wall
• Combustible Celluloid
• Art & Culture Maven
• Common Sense Media
• ColeSmithey.com
• SSG Syndicate
• EmanuelLevy.com
• Movie Reviews by FAQs
• the blogpaper
• NYC Movieguru
• Tony Medley
• One Guy’s Opinion
• WILDsound
• James King… Movies
• me-me-me.tv
• BeyondChron
• Joan & Melissa
• The Wicked Stage

[…]

Finally news about the US distribution for M&OW came out. As previously stated, the film will open 25 November 2009 in the US (limited in NY & LA) and then expand after.

I guess having the special Zac-focused trailer of Me and Orson Welles on the 17 Again DVD/Blu-ray makes now even more sense seeing that WBHV is handling the DVD release.

Here’s the article from Screen Daily, 9 September 2009: […]

Me and Orson Welles will screen at two film festivals in September and October:

At the Deauville American Film Festival in France: 4 – 13 September 2009
At the Woodstock Film Festival in the US: 30 September – 4 October 2009

Currently there is no information available who from the cast or crew will attend or if Zac will be there.

Also, a small tidbit: Victor Diaz from News 8 Austin is reporting that according the Richard Linklater Me and Orson Welles will have a premiere in Austin (Paramount Theatre) this fall.

Here are the full announcements regarding the film festivals:

[…]

Zac Efron’s film Me and Orson Welles finally got a US release date! Courtesy of EW’s fall movie preview the film will be released in the US on 25 November 2009!

Update: According to an interview with Richard Linklater at the Austin premiere of Extract, the movie will open in New York and Los Angeles on the 25th and expand the week after.

As reported earlier, the UK release date is 4 December 2009.

Screen Daily reported on 18 June 2009 that CinemaNX partnered with the theather chain Vue Entertainment and will release some of their movies directly through the chain bypassing a traditional distributor in the UK. The first movie using this model will be Me and Orson Welles.

In the meantime the release date has been set for 4 December 2009 in the UK and the plan is to release the film to 150-200 screens.

Just to show how wide the release is, here are three other numbers to compare:

• 17 Again was released in 407 theaters
• HSM3 was in 485 theaters
• Hairspray was in 358 theaters

So, while it’s not as wide as the Zac’s previous movies, it’s still a substantial release. Actually, it has  fantastic reach considering that it is an indie and not a highly publicized studio release.

[…]

This is obviously a bit late but with the M&OW teaser trailer out, here are the reviews from the professional sites and media outlets the movie got at TIFF08 last year:

• LA Times, The Big Picture
• The Hollywoodreporter
• Screen Daily
• Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert
• Variety, Thompson on Hollywood
• Variety
• ComingSoon.net
• CinemaBlend
• FirstShowing
• Time Out Chicago
• AICN
• Boston Globe
• Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer
• Cinematical
• moviefone
• Entertainment Weekly
• Chud
• Hollywood Elsewhere
• Collider
• AV Club
• Time Out New York
• LA Weekly
• The Playlist
• canoe.ca
• Awards Daily
• … and the winner is
• InContention
• FilmBlather
• The Christian Science Monitor
• Filmmaker International
• Filmmaker Magazine
• Lucidforce
• Fast Forward Weekly
• The Coast
• Paste Magazine
• Austin Chronicle
• AICN, Beaks
• Premiere
• Cleveland Scene
• /Film
• The Boston Phoenix
• Bryn Mawr Film Institute
• Ottawa Citizen
• The Strand
• Fipresci
• The Manitoban
• exclaim.ca

[…]

Here is the second post with reviews from Me and Orson Welles coming out of TIFF 2008. These reviews are all from private blogs etc, not professional critics. In that respect it’s important to keep in mind that many of them are not trying/claiming to give a fair, balanced or objective review; they are personal comments and the authors are entitled to them, even if you can see their bias from a mile away.

The TIFF08 reviews from film critics can be found here.

• RuViews
• Adventures in Retail
• But I Don’t Want A Blog
• VABN
• Reading Books
• Skirl | Dan Dickinson
• The Cinematic Experience of Forizzer
• According to Dave
• Film Junk
• A Lit Chick
• last night with riviera
• pyrocitor @ IMDb.com
• larry-411 @ IMDb.com
• blogTO
• Critically Speaking
• The Mad Hatter @ The Dark or The Matinee
• I Can’t Believe I Ate The Whole Thing!
• The Wonderful World of Bombippy
• Once more, with feeling
• Chrisbattaglia.com
• Film Experience Blog
• Other Reflections from the 7th Row
• It’s Always Something
• Filmcatcher
• Row Three
• eatmybrains
• Carmel in Oz
• The Blurst of Times
• Steve Munro’s Web Site

[…]

Me and Orson Welles had been screened at SXSW 2009 in March 2009 as mystery screening, ie people showed up without knowing which movie they are going to see until it started. Considering that Austin is Richard Linklater’s hometown many people suspected that it’s going to be M&OW though.

There have been a bunch of reviews (mostly private) coming out of this screening which you can find below.

• Austin Film Society
• Pajiba
• AICN
• Nerve.com
• Magnet Magazine
• The Wrap
• Hollywood Elsewhere – Arthouse Cowboy
• Triple Threat
• Spotlight on SXSW

[…]

Once again, I haven’t been updating the blog as I wanted… so I’ll be trying to play catch up – again.

To start things off, the very basics about last night’s premiere of Me and Orson Welles at the Toronto International Film Festival. There were many articles leading up to the premiere indicating high hopes for this movie (which I’ll put together in a later catch up post). There aren’t many reviews out yet (and not really any important ones) but the first reaction seems to be that the film is good but not brilliant. I’ll try to stay at least on top of the reviews. For this post, here is the entry about Me and Orson Welles from the festival website (written by the TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey) and a first clip from the movie.

Me and Orson Welles

Following on from School of Rock, Before Sunset and A Scanner Darkly, Richard Linklater continues to range across American cinema with the freedom of a true maverick. Is it any surprise that he has arrived at the doorstep of Orson Welles?

It is November, 1937, and teenager Richard Samuels (Zac Efron) dreams of making it on Broadway. One day he runs into Welles (Christian McKay), years before Citizen Kane but already a famous New York dramatist. With his new Mercury Theatre troupe as his instrument, Welles plans to mount a production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that will shake the foundations of American stagecraft. But he needs a bit player. Young Richard impresses him with his bravado and his singing voice – he’s hired.

Like a moth to a flame, Richard seeks the approval of the quick-tempered director, but soon finds himself distracted by Welles’s girl Friday, Sonja. Crisply played by Claire Danes as a woman with equal parts candour and ambition, she is irresistible, and knowingly so.

As Welles whips the troupe into shape for the pending premiere, egos and passions simmer to a boil. Richard falls for Sonja, but Sonja has a soft spot for more powerful men. Welles erupts into roaring fury when things don’t go his way, but can turn on a dime to charm an investor or a pouting actor.

McKay was discovered for this role doing a one-man show as Welles, and his performance is pitch perfect in voice and gesture – nothing short of dazzling. Efron is stretching his talent in new directions. He shows truly impressive range here, as the heady environment of the theatre awakens his character’s confidence and brings him to an inevitable clash with Welles.

Based on the novel by Robert Kaplow, Me and Orson Welles offers all the thrills of watching genius through the eyes of an innocent. The man who rose from Julius Caesar to War of the Worlds to Citizen Kane must have been hell to live with, which is the delicious pleasure of Me and Orson Welles.

And here is the short clip where Richard auditions for Orson Welles in front of the Mercury Theatre:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kteUGbN9CD4[/youtube]

I still have to do some catching up on “M&OW” but thought I’ll post at least the new stuff so I won’t get further behind.

There is a new article in The Providence (7 July 2008) with James Tupper which has a reasonable part about Me and Orson Welles. Here are the relevant sections:

[…]